"...Within months of my release, during the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, Putin invaded Ukraine. He could not tolerate the emergence of a vibrant, young democracy aligned with European values on his doorstep, so he attacked, seizing Crimea, backing separatists in Donbas and spreading lies, disinformation and confusion. The West’s woefully inadequate response meant that Putin thought he could get away with more and paved the way for the full-scale invasion of 2022.
"Putin must be defeated in Ukraine, or he will not stop there. Western powers have armed Ukraine just enough for it not to lose but not enough for it to win decisively. President Biden recognized the insufficiency of this approach when he announced a $61 billion military aid package for Ukraine in October.
"When Congress stepped in to play politics with global security, delaying the aid package, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Putin was seeing his “dreams come true.” And Putin’s dream today will be the West’s nightmare tomorrow..." -- Mikhail Khodorkovsky, former head of Russian oil company Yukos, addressing the House Republican Putin caucus in an op/ ed in the Washington Post. That collection of seditionists and coup participants has fled town, gathering its strength not for shoring up democracy here and in Ukraine, but in pursuing a bogus impeachment inquiry into President Biden at the behest of their demagogic cult leader. Because playing politics with our national security is all they can or want to do.
